David Winter • Mar 18, 2012 •
I only have moment to spare today, so I thought I'd share a life and death moment from the garden. The fearsomely-spiked creature photographed above is the larva of a ladybird (that is, a beetle of the family Coccinellidae), specificall... Read More
David Winter • Feb 05, 2012 •
A moment of life in the undergrowth captured (leaf beetles playing king of the castle?): I don't know exactly what was going on here, though I've got my ideas. Whatever I saw, it involved a lot of wild antennae-shaking from the two beetles facing e... Read More
David Winter • Jan 22, 2012 •
As I said last week, I've just returned from a bit of a summer holiday. I'm not the sort of person who can do absolutely nothing for any length of time, so I tend to find my relaxation in doing things that I wouldn't have a chance to if I was at home.L... Read More
David Winter • Nov 06, 2011 •
Life continues to be busy down here in Dunedin, so this will have to be another Sunday marked by a quick photo-heavy look into the world of the spineless. I don't pretend to be a great photographer, but I do get a lot of pleasure from recording the ... Read More
David Winter • Oct 02, 2011 •
It's Nobel season. Over the next month or so, we'll hear who has received a telegram summoning them to Stockholm and to fame and fortune (the cash part of the prize is worth about 1.5 million dollars). Of course, the Nobels are a big dea... Read More
David Winter • Jul 17, 2011 •
Issac Asimov provided one of my favourite quotes about scienceThe most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny...Scientific questions are almost never solved in eureka m... Read More
David Winter • Jun 12, 2011 •
The photos I share here are really not representative sample of the bugs I come across in my travels. For me to get photos of a bug I need to get pretty close to it, and that means i can't get nice pictures of creatures that are skittish or particular... Read More
David Winter • May 22, 2011 •
Last week I told you all that I had a great idea for a Sunday Spinelessness post, but not enough time write it. So, of course, this week I've managed my time in such a way... that there's still no way I'm going to get to write that idea up. I'll leave ... Read More
Elf Eldridge • Apr 12, 2011 •
I wanted to use my first post to welcome one of our national symbols to the folds of nanoscience! Say hello to Eudyptula minor, Korora in Maori or the Little Blue Penguin to its friends. Little Blue Penguin These quirky little critters have just been shown, by a group from Yale and Akron Universities (sadly without any Kiwi institutions contributing), … Read More
David Winter • Feb 06, 2011 •
Time for another tropical beetle from Vanuatu, and what could be more charming than a ladybird*?Or its absurdy spikey larvae? This ladybird is probably a bit larger, a bit rounder and a bit oranger than the ones you are used to seeing in your gar... Read More